Sub-Jr National Hockey C'ship: Gangpur-Odisha thrash Maharashtra 18-1

  Saifai (Uttar Pradesh) : Gangpur-Odisha showcased a rich vein of form as they hammered Maharashtra 18-1 in their Pool A match of the 8th Hockey India Sub Junior Men's National Championship 2018 (A Division) here on Monday.

It was a high-scoring match which saw Gangpur-Odisha dominate as they took an impressive lead of 8-0 in the first half.

The second half saw a similar story as the winning side scored 10 goals with Maharashtra also getting onto the score-sheet with Aditya Rasala, managing to score a goal in the 50th minute to set the scoreline as 18-1 at the end of the final whistle. Gangpur-Odisha's skipper Sudeep Chirmako led from the front as he scored five goals (3', 17', 21', 22', 69'). Deepak Ekka scored four goals in the 48th, 61st, 66th and 68th minutes while Amandeep Lakra scored a hat-trick (7', 19', 41'). Sumit Kindo also scored a brace in the 25th and 39th minutes of the match. Prashant Lakra scored two goals in the 50th and 52nd minutes and Ranjit Lakra scored a goal in the 65th minute to secure comfortable win.

In a Pool B match, Jharkhand defeated Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu by 12-2.

The winning team put up an attacking display, scoring their first goal in the 8th minute as David Dhanwar converted a penalty corner. The victors scored four goals in the first half and added eight more to their tally in the second half, to secure a convincing win. Goals for Hockey Jharkhand came think and fast which were scored by Abhishek Mundu (34', 59', 60'), Birsa Oreya (22', 37'), Abhishek Guria (43', 68'), Ashim (41', 65'), David Dhanwar (8', 47'), Flavius Tirkey (21'), Amos Tirkey (61') and Amit Baa (64'). Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu could only score two goals in the second half in the form of skipper, R Nishi Deva Arul and N Nagarohith in the 61st and 64th minute respectively to set the scoreline 12-2 at the end of the match.

In a Pool C match, Namdhari XI beat Manipur with a score line of 4-3.

The match started off on a very attacking note with Namdhari XI's skipper Hanspal Singh scoring in the very first minute of the game to get an early lead. Joining the party were Deepak and Akashdeep Singh who scored a goal each in the 13th and the 17th minutes respectively to give their side a lead of 3-0 in the first 20 minutes. Dingku Sharma Gurumayum scored the opening goal for Manipur in the 21st minute, followed by a counter goal from Maninder Singh of Namdhari XI to have a commanding lead of 4-1 at the end of the first half. The second half witnessed Manipur scoring two goals as Priybata Roy Talmen and Dingku Sharma Gurumayum scored one each in the 44th and 49th minutes. In the end, Namdhari XI defended well to keep the score at 4-3 in their favour at the final whistle.

In Pool D, it was Uttar Pradesh who prevailed against Odisha 3-2 in a close encounter.

Suraj Singh from Uttar Pradesh Hockey scored a brace in the 16th and 29th minutes of the first half whereas Matiyas Dang and Subas Barla scored a goal each in the 19th and 25th minutes keeping the scores level at 2-2 at the half-time break. Both the teams showed resilience in the second half to keep each other's efforts out, but it was Uttar Pradesh's attacking flair which proved to be the difference when they scored through Ajay Yadav in the 70th minute to nail the victory.